As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically include multiple system components. During the design of information handling systems, system components are characterized to properly allow system components to communicate. As system bus speeds increase, it is becoming more and more difficult to characterize components using external testing methods. In some cases, component characteristics such as input/output (I/O) buffer models are provided by component manufacturers that specify the test loads at which the data was obtained. However, this data is often produced via simulation and not correlated with physical data. Consequently, information handling system designers must choose between either trusting the models provided by the component manufacturers, or undertaking the cost of producing an appropriate test fixture and the difficult and time consuming task of testing the components in order to validate the I/O buffer models provided by the manufacturer.
Current methods for correlating device models or testing output buffers involve system simulation with vender supplied characteristic data of the devices and lab measurements for verification, connecting external components into the system design and lab measurements, or creating special case test boards where the components under test can be mounted. These methods are time consuming and can be very difficult, and ultimately may not produce accurate results.